Counter-Strike: Source

What works

Most configuration and options work (see below).

Video Stress test works, but when overriding dxlevel to 81 or 70 (see 'what does not work'), some textures will be overbright or completely white - like the 'invisible soldier' that appears as solid white in this stress test.

"Find server" and join functionality works.

"Create server" functionality works.

Gameplay works well, but crashes randomly on many maps (like de_dust2).  Overriding to the hl2.exe OS to be Windows98 greatly reduces/eliminates the crashes for some people.

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What does not

The server MOTD message does not display.

Sending of voice chat is currently not working (too garbled for use).

Changing AA in game does not work, but can be overridden in Linux at card level.

In game steam community does not work.

Will not work when run from an NTFS partition.

Runs too slowly to play with dxlevel set to 90.  Must be overridden to 81 or 70, even with my hardware (see below).

Workarounds

What was not tested

Nothing known.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

Because of the crashes, crippling speed issues when using DX9 or better, and missing/broken features like the MOTD and voice, this game's support can be rated bronze at best. Tested with wine 1.1.6, 1.1.5, 1.1.3, and 1.1.2 (no difference between results). Tested with nvidia drivers 177.80, 177.76, 177.70, 177.68, and 177.67 (no difference in results). Tested on Kubuntu 8.10b1, a6, a5, & a4 w/ kernel 2.6.27-7, 2.6.27-5, 2.6.27-4, 2.6.27-2, 2.6.27-1, 2.6.26-5 (no difference in results). Tested with hl2.exe overridden to Win98 and WinXP, with sound enabled and disabled (no difference in results). Tested running fullscreen (1650x1050 and resolutions down to 960x600), and running in a virtual windows (1280x800 & 1024x768), no difference in results. Tested *without* Compiz, no pulseaudio. Test system: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 1066, ASUS Striker II Formula MB, ASUS EN9800GTX+ DK (512MB), ABS Tagan BZ800 PS

All things going well, this game will work in current versions of wine (wine-1.0.1 and up) if you:

1. Install steam and Counter Strike Source from the DVD or via the steam download.
2. Select only "ALSA" sound driver in winecfg. OSS does not work anymore because Steam itself has sound open.
3. Start Steam with the following command:

cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Steam && WINEDEBUG=-all wine steam -applaunch 240

Note: Your path might differ, depending on language and installation directory. This is default for English install.
Note2: Additional command line options go after-applaunch * not before. Ex: -applaunch 240 -dxlevel 80 -console

For better graphics quality you might want to use -dxlevel 90 command option and enable GLSL shaders via registry (save this to a "file.reg" then import with 'wine regedit file.reg'):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]
"UseGLSL"="enabled"

Note: GLSL is enabled by default as of wine-0.9.49

For better performance use -dxlevel 80 or even 70 and the following game settings:

cl_drawmonitors 0
r_WaterDrawRefraction 0
r_WaterDrawReflection 0

Also you can disable GLSL.

Known issues:

• When starting a game Steam throws an error saying The registry was in use by another process.
  See Steam's HOWTO for possible solutions.
• Counter Strike crashes as soon as it starts or you join a game.
  You most likely have other program(s) using sound. Run winecfg and select only ALSA sound driver. OSS is not the best choice anymore.
  
  For Ubuntu 8.04 and up - kill/disable pulseaudio. It is not compatible with Wine. And will cause all sorts of problems if left running.
  
  Another possible reason - you have "Steam Community In-Game" enabled. It does not work properly on Wine and causes all games to crash. Please disable it in settings -> In-game tab.
  
  On some distros with broken gcc (Ubuntu in particular) in winecfg libraries tab add "GameOverlayRenderer.dll" and set it to "disable".
• MOTD/server description is not visible.
  This is a know bug and is not yet fixed. Some text might be visible but most is not.
• Voice communication doesn't work (for some users).
  There are no known workarounds. Try using alsa as described bellow and using other voice communication software.
• Steam will not work from ntfs partition mounted using ntfs-3g driver (2.6.25 kernels and older)
  This is a known limitation of the driver. Steam requires functionality (mmap with shared write access) which Wine can not emulate if it's not supported on file system. To fix: Install Steam and all content into native Linux file system.
• Game crashes after a few minutes. You can fix this by putting this file into your "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/YOURUSERNAME/counter-strike source/cstrike/resource" folder, or by applying this patch. See bug #7698 for more information. 
• Lacking fonts. You need Tahoma and Lucida Console fonts for every text to show properly. Use winetricks to get them if you don't have a windows install handy.
• Game crash after a while
  To fix:
  Run winecfg, click "Add application...", select "hl2.exe" (doesn't matter which one, only the filename is used, not the path) and click Open. Select "hl2.exe" in the list and change the "Windows version" to "Windows 98".

Thoughts -
(i) In the past Steam updates have been followed by serious errors running CS:S (or even just steam), including serious lockups. When running after an update, be sure that you're ready to switch to another tty at the first sign of trouble - preferably having a "wineserver -k" sitting ready in it just in case. Just a thought.

(ii) Sound latency issues (skipping, popping as everything struggles to keep up) - most notably sudden lag during firefights can sometimes be cleared up by running "soundlist" in the CS:S console. This is a more general CS:S issue, nothing to do with wine.

• Linux-gamer's Steam, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source with Wine
• French HOWTO Installation de Steam avec wine
• German tutorial Counter strike Source on Ubuntu

If you have other good resource (at least as good as ones above) send vitamin a message with the link.

Do not change mat_dxlevel if the CS-Source game renderer has been started one time or more. If you need to change it (for example, for join in a server with zblock), change it before you join a server or with the -dxlevel launch parameter. If not, the game will freeze for a very long time. Only try it if you have enough memory (1GB or more) and a good hard disk :)